Sanctuary
by LeaD
Summary: Two years now since that day he earned his own powers and no one batted an eye after proving his strength, but with the murder of a relative he and a fellow Kurosaki find family skeletons that could cost them their lives...
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach nor do I own The song Sanctuary…. It's just so pretty I had to use it.

My name is Kurosaki Ichigo… I am now seventeen years old and I am a high school student and… Representative Shinigami. Two years ago I had been living my life as normal as one who can see ghosts can live it. Then one day I saw a girl slay a monster of extreme power. If I had known that interacting with this girl my life would change so drastically I think…I like to think I would've still chosen to do so. At that time I had a kind of conceitedness to me. My life involved school, my friends, Keigo, Mizuiro and Chad, and my family. Oh yeah and maybe helping out a stray ghost or two. But now… I find I have more friends than I cared to acknowledge and made some others along the way, and they're the reason I continue to fight. I want to protect them and those close to them, and the people close to them… etc.

I guess you could say after gaining my powers as a Shinigami… I grew up just a little. After you've saved the girl who once saved your life, taking on what you could better describe as vampires, avenge my mother by killing her killer, and save both the human world and soul society from a Shinigami gone bad what else is there to do?

"I'm home…" I called out lazily wondering when the old man would strike, after all I was later than usual… and eerily enough… none came.

"Ichi– Nee!" Yuzu called out from the TV room. With a tired sigh the shoes came off and I made my way there to find them all sitting with dinner with them. Karin feeding her face, Dad going on about something and Yuzu on the move to start a bowl of food for me.

"I'm not hungry." I told her and she frowned sitting back down.

"Well join us anyway… Ayame is going to be on TV."

"Ayame…" I had to pause to recall the face of the cousin I hadn't seen in well… five years. "Why?"

"They're airing the international dance competitions on the television…" Yuzu smiled in a way I hadn't seen her smile in a while.

"She's on…" Karin said lazily somehow drawing the attention of both my father and youngest sister. And sure enough on the television had been the petit girl I once knew. She looked like she really hadn't changed that much physically, but her hair was now in a longer length and was slicked back into a bun that sat upon the back of her head. As soon as I heard the slow intro to the song in the background I already knew I wouldn't be paying too much attention.

* * *

"You loose?" His manly voice came from around the leg she had upon his shoulder to stretch out her leg muscles.

"Loose enough." She slowly lowered her leg stepping onto her toes flexing her calf muscles. "Lets try to not injure me this year Maiku." She smiled at the black haired male who only smiled back. Her hands immediately went to smooth her black hair that was kept into a bun on the upper part of her head while his hair was as bit as unruly as ever.

"So we're not really breaking a leg out there?" He smiled and she rolled her eyes and smoothed out her dress. It was strapless that started with a red trimming around the top, ending with a white layer leaving the rest of her dress white that came to her knee looking rather plain and ordinary. He on the other hand bore black pants with a red silk top with the first couple of buttons left undone, just to be the sexy stud muffin he thinks he is.

"No broken anything.. At least go for sprains…" She nodded at him and made her way to the floor and took her stance, just standing there.

"_In you and I there's a new land… _" Slowly she raised a hand only to have him rush out and take it and immediately they fell into a tango like move with him leaning over her, leading her across the floor as if he'd had plenty of experience at this. She merely followed his steps across the floor. _"The sanctuary, my sanctuary…"_ Turning when he wished it. At times their bodies were close and his hands erotically moved across the flatness of her stomach, at her thigh lifting her dress oh so much higher. Her moves were so unsure she'd often pull away from. _"All I fear.. Means nothing…" _She'd pulled away entirely and he'd only grasp her hand stopping her… almost pleading with her. Once she'd relinquished the thought of leaving; she was back in his arms. Rocking with him as his hands aimlessly moved like she was the most desirable creature on earth. Then all at once his hands took part of her dress in his hand and pushed her out spinning her as the beat changed stripping her of the white that seemed to have been one long material wrapped around her body, leaving her in a red dress

"…_.You show me how to see that nothing is whole and …nothing… is broken…." _ She'd finally turned to him meeting his moves with the same fierceness that he had shown in the beginning. Her moves to became more sultry, legs at his hip while upper body leaned back. The shyness and fear melted all at once. The sheer passion between one another matched the sultry lighting that changed slightly. _"My fears... My lies… melt away…" _Slowly the music begun to fade leaving the two, entwined in an embrace looking at one another, foreheads together.

"Your breath stinks…" She whispered as he breathed in her face.

"You're sweaty…" He smiled back and relinquished her so that they could face the crowd that clapped for them and bowed.

* * *

"That's my angel…" A woman smiled from her bed looking at the pair on the television. With a small moan she reached her hand out to grab the remote and she shut the television off.

"She's talented…" A nurse said clearing off the tray of hospital food.

"Of course… She gets it from her grandmother…" the older woman merely laughed before coughing a bit.

"Well Kurosaki-san…" The nurse smoothed out the older woman's hair. "I'll leave you be."

"Kimiko…" The older woman started.

"I know.. The radio…" The young nurse smiled and turned on the radio, adjusted the volume to something low enough for the woman to hear, but not loud enough to wake her roommate. Once the nurse left the room the woman sighed.

"What do you want with this old woman…?" She asked turning her gaze to the darkest corner in the room. "Whatever power I had has withered up with time."

"I don't believe that for a second, Kurosaki Mina." The shadowed being came to light and she merely gasped. "But it doesn't matter, for I have far much more power than you could've ever dreamed of…"


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, so please no suing involved. I'm just a fan who loved the show so much and incidentally found a little bit of an opening and ripped it open.

_"Ichigo…" Rukia looked at the orange haired male who looked like he was more irritated than upset._

"_Listen I would much rather not go to this stupid funeral." He muttered then sighed. " But it will have to be you guys to hold things down while I'm in Osaka." He looked at the group._

"_Are you saying compared to you we're incompetent?" The annoyed tone of a familiar red head_

"_Of course I am…" Ichigo replied lazily._

"_You mustn't have been close to your father's mother then?" _

"_Just lets drop it." He snapped and only then realizing how quiet the room had gotten. "I'm leaving to pack." _

That had been the last time he'd spent time with his circle of friends. He'd snapped at them all unnecessarily. Glancing around those who rode on the same train as he had he could see majority of them were asleep. Sure many of the businessmen and women were awake on their laptops, headphones plugged into the illuminated screen, but his family were out. His father was drooling all over himself, Yuzu managed to suck on three of her fingers, a habit Ichigo assumed long gone and Karen wore a frown that he had grown accustomed to seeing when he looked at his own face in the mirror, the same frown his friends made habit of mocking him about.

With a defeated sigh he began to think there really was no harm in telling the others about why he wasn't so keen on going to the funeral. There was no harm in the fact that when his mother died he'd heard the old woman call his mother "Stupid" and such… Isn't when a person die all those negative feelings supposed to go away? Isn't that when you realize you never really truly appreciated the person as much as you could have?

"Ichi-Ni." Yuzu looked up at him with sleepy eyes. "Is something wrong?"

"No…" His frown softened a little bit. "I'm not tired."

"Try to sleep a little" She cooed in a motherly tone. "Even just a little. Tomorrow we'll make it to Ayame's home then right to the…"

"I know…" He replied taking a deep breath and closed her eyes knowing she wouldn't try to sleep unless he gave it a shot. What he hadn't expected was for the girl to move the armrest separating them and snuggle up against him in an uncharacteristic way.

As to be expected, Once he let himself succumb to sleep the night passed quickly, but the following day seemed to drag. Once they'd made it to Ayame's tiny apartment there was enough time to eat, change and keep moving. The ceremony following took forever. Is it possible that having death surround him since that day he'd accepted being a Shinigami Representative that death and things of the matter made him numb. The sound of despair that wrecked through the bodies of those who were close with her didn't truly his a pang in his heart as much as it might have years ago.

"Ichigo…." A soft voice called to him. His gaze fell onto the petit form of none other than Kurosaki Ayame. She really looked so much slimmer in real life. "We've not the chance to speak yet… with all the rushing about." She smiled at him a bit weakly, of course around the eyes her sadness was a bit more obvious, with good reason of course. When the girl wasn't off practicing about she lived with the now deceased woman.

"No, I guess we hadn't." He turned his gaze back out the window of the tiny apartment to look at the line of street lights down the street.

"You still look evil." She chuckled as he looked back at her his eyebrows scrunched in the middle. "So, you have a girlfriend yet?" She watched his face change in emotion before he answered with a simple…  
"No."

"I see…" She moved and propped herself against the counter. "I will be leaving this house…" She whispered softly. "Maiku has gone off to be with his fiancée for the time we have off, so I suppose it's only time I move on and find a place to survive before I got back into strenuous training."

"What are you getting at?" In the back of his mind he wondered if she'd even consider moving to his neck of the woods….so to speak.

"Nothing." Ayame replied quickly darting her eyes to her feet as Ichigo's eyes drifted in her general direction. After finding she'd say no more, nor do anything to bring attention to herself his gaze went back to look at the street lights once more."You know…" She started breaking the simple silence. "They recorded her dying of heart failure…" She stood and stretched. "But that's far from it Ichigo… Grandma… she was murdered. The murderer gone now… but he had a reason. And I swear I'm going to find out why she was murdered." She took several steps away from him and was nearing the exit from the kitchen and the entrance to the living room.

"Why are you telling me? You know how I feel about that woman." As soon as he'd said it he wish he had some more tact to him. He could just see her flinch in the back of his mind.

"I'm telling you because if I wind up having my own funeral…I need someone to know… I don't want to be buried… I want my body burned and tossed into the wind off mount Fuji…"

"Ayame…" Ichigo turned to look at her but she was already gone. Really… above all else why did she have to inform HIM of all people.


End file.
